The conspiracies behind the Kennedy assassination

SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES The 35th President of the United States was assassinated in Dallas, Texas (top). Lee Harvey Oswald was convicted, but many believe he was not fully responsible.

Beloved by many, John Fitzgerald Kennedy became a staple of America in the 1960s, leading the country in a major recession and making it through one of the tensest moments in world history during the Cold War. Kennedy was the youngest president to ever be inducted and was loved internationally as he donated millions to countries in Latin America.

Despite his many accomplishments, Kennedy still had his doubters as many believed he was not a good leader for the United States. This all ended on November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Kennedy was gunned down inside his motorcade as it was driving through Dealay Plaza. Lee Harvey Oswald positioned his rifle at a window on the sixth floor of the Texas book depository a mile from the motorcade and allegedly fired the fatal shots. Using a Carcano Model Infantry rifle, Oswald shot Kennedy and fled the scene. He was then arrested an hour later. While being transferred, Oswald was shot and killed at point blank range by nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live television.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy has since been studied and many have come up with evidence that puts the original story told into question.

The Warren Commission was an executive order set up to investigate the murder of JFK. The first set of information that makes this assassination so suspicious is what the Warren Commission calls the “Magic Bullet Theory.” The theory questions how the second shot fired by Oswald was able to travel through JFK’s neck, then through passenger Gov. Connally's back, chest, wrist and into Connally’s thigh. Connally was seated in front of the president at the time of the shooting. What makes this so suspicious is the condition of the bullet after. The bullet was unfazed and many wonder how it is possible for one bullet to go through so much and end up intact.

The “magic bullet” has not been the only suspicious evidence found in the study. Connally claims the bullet that struck him had to be a separate bullet from the one that struck Kennedy. Also, one bystander claims to have been struck in the cheek by the strands of a bullet but was not near the reported location of the missing bullet. To make matters worse, it was reported that a separate film showed gun smoke and a second shooter coming from the grass on the ground near the motorcade. However, this video has reportedly gone missing.

There was then a committee formed in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. The House Select Committee was formed after it was confirmed by the Senate that the CIA had purposefully withheld information from the Warren Commission. The information that was withheld included key plots into the murder of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The House Select Committee then found acoustical evidence that there were six shots fired during Kennedy’s assassination when only three bullet casings were found. The committee concluded that there were two shooters involved in the assassination.

“The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy,” the committee wrote in a statement.

All of this information plays a key role in the understanding of one of the major conspiracy theories into the murder of John F. Kennedy. The main conspiracy that has been reported was that Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the killing of JFK for political power.

Johnson was JFK’s vice president and had spoken to Kennedy about continuing his old job as Texas Senator. This meant that Johnson was now becoming bored with the job of vice president and wanted the job of president. There were also reports that Lyndon B. Johnson was set to get dropped from the re-election ballot with JFK the following year. Also, Lyndon B. Johnson played a huge role in Kennedy going to Dallas and taking part in the parade. That was because Johnson no longer had political control of Texas and pushed JFK to go gain it back. Kennedy was disappointed in Johnson and felt he should have handled it since it was his home state. All this had led to Kennedy and Johnson exchanging words the day before Kennedy went to Dallas.

There are also reports that Texas lawyer Byron Skelton had warned Johnson and other members of Kennedy’s team that the political climate in Dallas was not safe and that he feared for the president’s safety; Kennedy never received that message. In a party the night before the assassination, key figures such as Johnson, former president Richard Nixon and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover were all in attendance. Also, in attendance was Madeleine Brown, a woman Johnson was having an affair with, who claimed that the vice president allegedly whispered in her ear very chilling words.

Another conspiracy that has received a lot of attention is that the mafia killed Kennedy. His brother, Robert F. Kennedy, had made many enemies in his attempt to crack down on organized crime. Many people believe that the Chicago, New Orleans and Miami mafias, out of anger at Robert Kennedy, killed JFK in retaliation.

Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner, was also said to have connections with the mafia and killed Lee Harvey Oswald to shut him up. It is believed that the mafia teamed up with the CIA to kill Kennedy and Oswald had knowledge of that.

The connection between the CIA and the mafia ties back to one man, Sam Giancana. Giancana was the head of the Chicago mob and a close friend to JFK. Kennedy’s father worked in the bootlegging industry during the prohibition and that led to Kennedy and Giancana forming a friendship.

Giancana even helped Kennedy win the 1960’s election. The plot thickened in 1975 when it was reported that Giancana was supposed to testify in front of a Senate Committee about a CIA assassination plot but was shot and killed before he even got the chance to testify.

All these conspiracies will have you wondering whether JFK’s assassination was an actual murder by Oswald or a plot by the government to get rid of Kennedy. Either way, the death of Kennedy touched the world. The United States lost one of the most caring and productive presidents in its history.